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Many KZN schools still plagued by apartheid-era infrastructure issues: Motshekga

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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says many schools in KwaZulu-Natal have infrastructure problems dating back to apartheid years.

She was speaking in Umlazi south of Durban, where she visited a pre-school and a primary school on the first day of the 2023 academic year in coastal provinces.


She highlighted that Nkonkoni Primary School still has an asbestos roof, but that government only has enough money now to paint it in order to protect the health of teachers and learners.

The KwaZukumnandi Pre-school doesn’t have room for children to play either.

Online registration

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has announced that the province will pilot a system of online school registration.

This as she and Education MEC Mbali Frazer, Motshekga were on school visits at the start of the academic year in coastal provinces.

Dube-Ncube says there is a lot of mobility in the provincial education system with families relocating or wanting to enrol their children in schools that perform better.

She says in some areas of Durban, there are queues of parents still trying to enrol their children on the first day of school.

Motshekga says the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Free State and Gauteng use the online registration system successfully and they are able to respond to challenges based on reliable data.

Video | Ongoing infrastructure challenges in KwaZulu-Natal schools:

Excited parents

Meanwhile, parents in Umlazi have dropped off their children on their first day of pre-school or primary school with great expectations of what the future may hold for their little ones.

One of the parents, Ningi Ntombela, said it is a new experience to drop her son Melani off and leave without him, but she is happy it is his first day of school.

She says it is the beginning of her son’s future.

– Report by Khalesakhe Mbhense and Dries Liebenberg

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